Traveling across the treacherous and diverse landscape of western North Carolina is a challenge historically met with human ingenuity. Mountain traces of Native Americans, dusty stagecoach routes and vital railroads lined the region. Asheville installed the state s first electric streetcars. Intrepid young men and women continued North Carolina s aviation legacy. The Buncombe Turnpike helped tame the Blue Ridge Mountains, allowing livestock drives to reach markets in South Carolina. Author Terry Ruscin reveals the visionaries and risk-takers who paved the way to the Land of the Sky in a wondrous examination of western North Carolina transportation history."

Terry Ruscin, an author, columnist, photographer, researcher and retired advertising executive, is a member of the Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society, Inc.; Historic Flat Rock, Inc.; and DRAC (Design Review Advisory Committee, overseeing the city s historic districts for the Hendersonville Historic Preservation Commission), as well as a commissioner with HRC (Henderson County Historic Resources Commission). Ruscin has served on the boards of the Henderson County Heritage Museum and the California Missions Foundation.